How To Survive A Close Encounter
by Schnickledooger
Summary: Matt takes T.K. to play in the park. Little does he know that two demon children like to prowl there. And the girl beast wants to suck out his soul and eat him. Pre-Season 01. Chibi-cuteness.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own** Digimon**. Toei Animation does.

**Summary: **Matt takes T.K. to play in the park. Little does he know that two demon children like to prowl there. And the girl beast wants to suck out his soul and eat him. Pre-Season 01. Chibi-cuteness.

**How To Survive A Close Encounter**

Matt squatted behind a tree and hugged his knees to chest protectively as he cowered in fright. He stifled a whimper as he heard his pursuer crashing through the underbrush nosily in search of its prey.

This wasn't how the day was supposed to go. It was supposed to be good—Dad and Mom had both taken the same day off from work to try and make today a sort of special "family day". But Dad had woken up with a severe cold this morning and couldn't even get out of bed. His mom had gotten angry and accused him of staying out too late with his friends and coming in from the rain with no coat or umbrella. Then Dad had told her to leave him alone—he had a headache—and Mom had said that's what he deserved for drinking too much.

That's when the shouting match had started.

Matt had packed a small lunch, taken T.K. by the hand, and left the apartment complex as quietly as possible, deciding it was up to him to make sure his little brother still had a happy day.

He had taken him to the park nearest to Highton View Terrace so they could stay out as long as possible but still manage to return home quickly when it was time. It was a warm, summer's day and away from the hostile climate that always seemed to be hovering around their parents, being outside surrounded by the laughter of other children and the chatter of the animals hidden in the foliage was like a breath of fresh air. The first few hours passed by the two brothers rather peacefully as they built sandcastles, played tag and lay in the grass watching other kids fly their kites in the calm breeze. They were blissfully unaware of the terror they were about to come face to face with; deaf to the footsteps of doom that treaded so perilously close…

Then without warning, the two young demons struck out, ensnaring their unsuspecting prey.

Matt snapped out of his serene state of mind when he heard T.K. scream and whirled about alert and ready for battle, fully prepare to launch himself at any pervert adult or bullying kid that was picking on his precious little brother.

Then he caught sight of… _it._

It was crouching on its hindquarters and hunched over so he couldn't tell its full height but it appeared around the same size as his brother. Its skin was a deep, tanned brown color and it possessed a mane of spiky chestnut-red hair that matched its eyes, which were watching him intently with a kind of feral wariness as it greedily devoured the lunch Matt had made, stuffing the riceballs and manju dumplings into the cavern of its mouth with its forepaws.

T.K. sat in dangerous proximity to it—not even less than a foot away—and was yelling his head off in sheer outrage at theft of their food. Matt wanted to rush forward, snatch his brother away from the creature and run to a safe distance, but he legs felt paralyzed. Besides, the beast's hide was decked out in numerous cuts and scratches—no doubt war wounds won in battle. He wouldn't stand a chance against it.

Yet he could not stand by and watch the creature have his brother for dessert. So far, it had ignored T.K. despite the boy shrieking right in its ear—focusing on the finishing the ready meal at hand first. But when Matt saw T.K. raise both his small, chubby fists in the air, preparing to pound the beast soundly on the head, he knew had to intervene before his brother was viewed as a threat and taken out.

Finding that he had regained full control of nerves, he leaped up to intercept the blow. Perhaps if T.K. would be able to escape if he provided a suitable distraction… but before he could take one step, the back of his shirt was snagged firmly in an attack from behind.

Unable to reach his brother in time, Matt could only watch helplessly as T.K. landed two solid blows to the creature's spiky head with enough force to stolen food to fly out of its mouth. The tanned-skinned beast blinked wide-eyed in surprise for split second before growling low in his throat, pouncing on his assailant and pinning him to the ground.

"T.K.!" Matt cried in panic as his brother was soon lost in the tangle of limbs as the two rolled around in the dirt struggling.

He tried to break away from his captor's grip but it was no use. Whatever it was, they were very strong. Matt turned around in a fury, angered at being thwarted at coming to his brother's rescue… and halted in mid-retaliation as he gawked at it.

Well,_ her_ to be more specific.

She had to be related to the creature currently engaged with T.K. in mortal combat. She had the same tanned skin and spiky chestnut hair. She reminded Matt of one of those demon _kitsune_ he had heard about in stories—all fox faced and beady-eyed smiling at him with her needle-pointed teeth like she wanted to eat him.

Matt realized with a sudden horror that she was wearing the remains of her last victim: a t-shirt and skirt, loose socks (one drooping pathetically down her left ankle) and sneakers trailing untied shoelaces.

He stood there trembling all over, too afraid too make a run for it—as the demon girl reached out a clawed hand to touch his blond hair.

"Pretty," she said, beaming her razor-sharp smile at him. "Mine."

_Oh my god, she was going to scalp him and wear his hair as a trophy!_

Matt let out a scream of pure terror and bolted, making a mad dash for one of the side-paths in the park, momentarily forgetting his brother—all the instincts within him yelling to save his own skin.

Behind him, he could hear the footsteps of the she-demon as she stalked after her quarry. He thought he could shake her off his scent by splashing through the water fountain then darting into the trees where he hid behind one, praying that she would find another unfortunate victim.

He held back tears of shame as he realized he had left T.K. all alone and defenseless out there against the demon-girl's brother—at least, he had assumed it was male. It had probably eaten him by now. What was he going to tell his parents when he got home?_ If_ he ever got out of this alive.

Not too far away, he could hear the demon-girl stumbling through the thick bramble and calling out in an alien-sounding language.

_"Kochi, kochi, kawaii gaijin!"_

It was probably a chant to start up a bonfire where she would roast him. Matt shivered as he saw her shadow draw nearer to his hiding place and grasped tree branch in both hands in defense. He may have been too late to save T.K., but he could at least enact vengeance upon the two demons, which had ripped the two siblings apart. He wasn't going to be eaten without a fight!

Adrenalin coursing swiftly through his bloodstream, Matt gave a blood-curdling war cry and jumped out from behind the tree—he only had time to see the she-demon's eyes widen in alarm before he knocked her into the ground with a spectacular flying tackle.

It didn't go as well as he had planned. For one, the she-demon didn't seem the least bit fazed or afraid of him—quite the opposite, actually, she appeared to have enjoyed getting attacked. The she-demon let out a reedy, high-pitched giggle, flung her arms around his neck, and began drawing his face down to hers, her ruby-red lips (no doubt still fresh with the blood of her last victim) turned upward expectantly.

Matt's life flashed before his eyes as he remembered horror stories his dad friend's used to tell to scare him. Stories about creatures with sharp, pointy fangs that drank blood and others that sucked out people's souls…

_He was going to die! _Right here! In the arms of a demon girl who was going to suck out his soul, drink his blood and feed on his flesh and leave nothing but his bare bones!

He flailed wildly, but his efforts were in vain. The she-demon possessed unnatural, inhuman strength. She drew his head down until it was mere inches away from hers—mere inches away from death and her breath smelled surprisingly like cherries—and…

"Hey, you kids, you're too young for that! Break it up!"

And he was saved by an elderly gentleman with a beard waving his cane at the "upstart whippersnappers for disturbing the public peace" and how "in _my _day—" and Matt thought the old man had given him a better present than Santa Claus ever could have.

_"Maaaaaaaatt!"_ called a familiar voice, one he thought he would never hear again and he gaped in astonishment at the sight of T.K., hair askew and clothes scruffy-looking but very much _alive_, sitting in the sandbox packing the last bit of sand down on the creature-shaped lump buried underneath (a few strands of spiky hair sticking up rather suspiciously) as proof of his victory against his adversary.

"Can we go home now, Matt? I'm tired," T.K. said, rubbing his eyes.

Scarlet rays of sunshine were streaming through the trees and the sky had turned a golden-orange with a hint of blue on the horizon, signally the late afternoon and the start of twilight approaching. They had been in the park almost all day. Their parents must be worrying about them—if they had stopped fighting long enough to notice their absence.

Matt glanced back at the she-demon who was still eyeing him like a tasty piece of meat. He didn't think she would just let him walk away, so what should he do? Then he recalled the rest of what happened in those stories his dad's friends told him… about how if you left an offering, it would appease the evil spirits and they would leave you alone.

But the she-demon's beast-brother had eaten all their food. Matt put his hands in his pockets in hope of finding something suitable. He came up the grand reward of: one empty candy wrapper, a ten-yen coin, the button that had come lose from his shirt, a stick of gum and piece of lint. He proffered these treasures out to the demon girl hoping they were enough to appease her.

The she-demon's face lit up happily as she accepted the offering and held it close to her heart, a rosy hue flaring up in her cheeks, and Matt breathed a sigh of relief knowing he was safe at last.

He couldn't wait until the next time his dad's friends came over again so he could tell them he knew how to survive a close encounter.

**The End**

**A/N: **Hehe, I don't know where this came from. It might have stemmed from me remembering when the Digidestined go back to the real world to find the Eighth Child and they show parks a lot. I started thinking, I bet they must have fun playing in those when they were little! Originally, I wanted Matt and T.K. to run into Tai and Kari but I imagined this instead. I think it turned out funnier, besides I already have thought up another ficlet for the four of them later.

For you canon freaks out there who will no doubt tell me that Jun and Matt didn't meet until Season 02, how do you know that? I mean come on, all the original eight kids freaking forgot about a giant lizard and parrot fighting in the middle of the street outside their apartment complexes and were sucked up into the sky. They didn't even know that they all had lived near each other until a few years later. You think Matt would remember this "close encounter" even if he tried? He probably blocked it from his memory completely! XD

_"Kochi, kochi, kawaii gaijin!" _basically (come here, cute foreigner!)

I know you're wondering why I put that phrase in Japanese when it's obvious Matt can understand it. Two reasons: 1) it's something Jun _would_ say and it sounds really awkward in English and 2)maybe Jun said it so shrill and fast, Matt couldn't make it all out. Just imagine that she spoke it in English because she mistook Matt for a foreigner due to his hair color, but since I'm already writing in English, I made it Japanese, understand?^^;

Did you guys like Matt's POV? He has a rather overactive imagination, doesn't he? (Maybe he should be a science fiction novelist instead of a rock star). Mistaking harmless children for demons! Alright, they're not so harmless—I bet Jun and Davis were such brats as kids^^ (And I mean that in a good way. You _can _make fun of characters you like, you know. I didn't mean to bash them and I really don't think I did--sorry if some people took offense at how I portrayed them. Honestly, though, this is a _humor _fic and it shows how Matt sees things).

If you want to, you can request a short one-shot of whatever from me, as long as it's Digimon. I don't deal well with couple pairings or angst, but I am good in writing friendship and humor fics. I am most familiar with Seasons 1-3, a little of 5, and practically none of 4, sorry Frontier fans.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this! God, I am in love with writing Digifics now! X3 I can't stop—they're so addictive! Please review, it's the only form a fanfic author gets paid in. I really would like to hear what you guys liked, your favorite lines and scenes! Thanks for reading!


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